Small Business Marketing with Trigger Events
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by: NancPaey
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Since many small businesses have compact budgets - and I'm guessing that includes your business - effective targeting is even more imperative. One type of targeting that use over again is targeting based on trigger events. This helps shorten the sales process by reaching potential customers at that moment they are most likely to come up with a purchase.
Trigger event marketing is targeting prospects which were highly likely to respond to the sales message in line with certain personal events. I'm sure you've looked at this before, as an example, my straight-A, college student daughter is inundated with credit card offers daily. The credit card offers are induced by her name being published to the Dean's list.
But, in my working experience, most small businesses aren't working with trigger event marketing, probably because they do not know they are able to. Usually, when I bring this up to a new client, I get the same exact reaction: the client rolls his big eyes, groans a little, then says "I can't afford that. "
But this process doesn't need to be expensive or complicated. You don't require a complex relational database with multiple tables and multipart queries. In fact, you often don't need some thing than your local newspaper.
You can purchase tons of trigger events hidden in the stories of your local newspaper, the trade journals, even public records. All you have to do is think outside of the box and relate the events to the prospects' need for your service.
Here are a few samples of how I've implemented trigger event internet marketing for my clients, to get anyone thinking:
I created a direct mail campaign in a realtor, helping her market to families who recently had new babies. New babies often cause the purchase of a bigger home, and, since the baby announcements were prominently listed within the local paper, it was easy for getting prospects' names.
For an automotive assistance center, I sent letters to that parents of 16 year olds whom recently got their driver's licenses, urging the parents to create their family cars in for some sort of safety inspection. We purchased the make contact with information from local driving schools, but subject to your state, this info might be around through public records.
I have a direct mail campaign running for a client who rents business furniture. We regularly get information on local companies that are preparing to expand - this information is available through almost any newspaper, chamber involving commerce, economic development board - and we educate them relating to the value of renting versus purchasing.
I use trigger event marketing with my own led generation process constantly. For instance, I scan my local business journal for new businesses which use just opened. I send them a congratulations card and invite the crooks to visit my website for a free report.
I pay attention to which companies have hired new personnel in their marketing departments. This often means that will their marketing budgets have increased, and now might be a fantastic time to see if they need my services.
I watch for companies that contain recently rolled out a new product or announced a new service. Often, small businesses are so engrossed within the development of a new service that they don't even think of the marketing aspect until the product will be ready. Product and service roll outs are generally great events to trigger a make contact with from me.
What events can set off contacts from you?
In order to use trigger event marketing for your own business, you must first identify what your trigger events are generally. Here are a few questions that may spur some thought:
* What happens within a business, a family or a person's life immediately prior to their needing your service?
* Who do your prospects often learn about you from? How is that connection initiated?
* Who is the main decision maker in purchasing your product or service and what causes this person to finally buy?
* Are there others involved in the buying decision and what would make them support your product over other possibilities?
* What causes a business or individual to need it now?
Brainstorm a list of trigger events for your own personal product or service. Next, compile an index of resources that can act as notifiers of events. Consider using press releases, web pages, news wires, blogs, rss aggregators, search engine alerts, yahoo news, etc.
You might also want to consult with a professional list broker who can customize a mailing list to meet your exact needs. Brokers get paid by the list owner, not the list renter, so you can usually get the ways to access their knowledge and services for no cost. And, believe it or not, there's a simple list out there of everything together with everyone imaginable.
Now, get started with your small business marketing!
About the Author
Indianapolis Marketing - Modern Image Marketing provides small business marketing services to enhance your organization. Other services include social media strategy development, facebook fanpage creation, blog setup and optimization, email marketing Indianapolis web design affordable SEO and more. To download our many free checklists, drop by http://ModernImage.com
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